WHICH SCANNER DO YOU USE? posted by Mr Anderson

[CSJournals-migration]

BEST FOR THE DOLLAR COIN SCANNER

 

SO I RECEIVED A SCANNER FOR CHRISTMAS AND FOR SOME REASON IT WILL NOT SCAN THROUGH THE PLASTIC HOLDER... IT SEEMS TO FOCUS ON THE PLASTIC AND NOT THE COINS...COIN AND LABEL ARE FUZZY. WAS WONDERING WHICH SCANNER YOU ALL USE TO GET SUCH AWESOME PICS OF YOUR COINS. I AM GETTING TIRED OF POSTING SO SO PHONE SHOTS OF MY COINS.

 

THE SCANNER USED IS AN EPSON PERFECTION V39 4800 DPI 48 BIT DEPTH

MIGHT I NEED SOMETHING WITH A HIGHER BIT DEPTH?

 

THANKS ALL FOR THE INPUT

 

See more journals by Mr Anderson

[jxs525]

Hi there!!!

I don't use a scanner at all, I used to take my coin pictures with my IPhone 5 along with a lens attachment, then I edited it and compressed the file for posting.

But now, I just recently got the new IPhone 6 plus and it takes awesome close up pictures without a lens attachment.

If you have a smart phone, try it out and see if it works for you.

 

Happy New Year!!! Jimmie

[coin928]

I feel your pain.

 

I use an old Epson Stylus Photo RX500 multi-function Printer/Scanner. I have attempted to upgrade to newer Epson models, and got the same result as you're seeing. I've also tried a couple of Cannon Printer/Scanners with no success. The newer models seem to have a fixed focal point, which may be great for paper documents, but does not work at all for coins in a slab where the focal point is just a bit above the glass surface.

 

My RX500 no longer functions as a printer, but I have not been able to find any other printer/scanner that works as well for getting a high resolution image of my coins. You might check eBay for a used one.

 

Good luck...

[RWB]

Scanners do not focus. Whatever is sitting in contact with the glass will be sharpest.

[Ultra Cameo Collection]

Why are you yelling OP?

[Iowa Silver Baron Bammer]

I agree to a point with coin928. I have found that scanners are the worst choice to get coin pictures. We had a discussion on scanners in a baseball card forum, and the consensus was the newer scanners have a different light source than older scanners. For example, to get good scans of my graded currency (or sports cards) in a graded slab, an older HP scanner I've had for 10 years or more works the best.

 

As far as coins go, I suggest even a inexpensive point and shoot digital camera. Cameras work so much better than anything for coin photography. I have found a little Panasonic camera works well, as long as the camera has a macro zoom function.

 

It does seem that the newest smart phone cameras do work also. I shoot all of my coin pictures with either my point and shoot or my DSLR camera and I have no problems. There is a learning curve with the cameras, but if you want high quality pictures, the cameras are the way to go.

[CBC]

I get better results with my iPhone 6 or iPad 4 than any scanner I ever tried. My Nikon D3200 does better than the iPhone or iPad but takes a lot more effort. I have never achieved even minimally satisfactory images of raw couns, much less slabbed coins, with a scanner.

[Yevrah1]

First feedback:

Typing in all capital letters is very distracting to read and is also considered as 'yelling' in the on-line world. And is considered inappropriate unless you mean to 'yell'.

 

Second feedback:

If you are going to change equipment at all, stop using a scanner and use a cell phone camera or some other kind of camera. Scanners are very low quality as compared to even a Samsung Galaxy S4 Smart phone with 12 megapixels (which is what I have).

 

I have a Nikon D5300 (24 megapixels) and it works wonderfully, assuming I light the slabs correctly.

[coin928]

I' like to add the following to my previous response.

 

My Epson RX500 was designed to scan negative photographic film and positive photographic slides. When these adapters are used, the focal point is above the glass much the way a coin would be when housed in a slab. I'm not using any special settings when I scan a slabbed coin, but it seems like these features may also allow the scanner to focus perfectly on the coin. I have over 1200 coin pictures on this site, and the vast majority of them have been created using the RX500 scanner.

 

None of the other scanners I've tried support film or slide scanning. I suspect that if you could find a scanner that supports film and slide scanning, it may also provide good images of slabbed coins.

 

If you do find a scanner that can focus on the coin, you may also find that the pictures produced can be pretty harsh. A coin that looks good in a scanned image generally looks fantastic in hand. On the flip side, a coin that looks great in hand, may not look so good in a scanned image. It will show you every little issue in great detail though.